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Should You Have a Plan “B”?

People often think if they should have a plan “b” when they follow their dream. They ask themselves if it won’t make them difficult to concentrate on what they want and if the plan “b” won’t distract them from goal achievement. The answer is: yes, you need to have a reserve plan. But there are some moments and warnings everyone should know about. Let’s discuss advantages and lacks of a backup plan.

There are two types of people when talking about the risk: first jump into the boat instantly, burn all the bridges and risk all their status and comfort; second treat risk carefully and this influences many of their decisions.

Any successful businessman knows that all eggs shouldn’t be kept in one basket. So, if you decided to follow your dream and to do everything you can, you should be prepared for things may go not as you planned them to. Plan “B” can have negative consequences as well.

For instance, it can be an excuse for you. You think that you follow your dream, but you turn around when the first obstacle happens and look for the ways to retreat. Many people use their reserve plan to stop going to their dream till the very end. This is the main lack of a backup plan.

It can cause procrastination as well: instead of daring to your life goal, you do everything but not what is needed. That is why plan “b” is a procrastination field in this case.

Plan “A” and Plan “B”

Ideally, plan “b” should be nearly equal to plan “a” by its complexity and advantages. Also, it has to fulfill your main goal, not to deny it. For instance, if you want to write a book and this is your main goal for several future years, your backup plan could include printing a comix or writing sceneries and stories.

When it comes to the moment you understand your story is not good enough for a book, maybe it will perfectly fit comix or picture series, short story or film. In any case, you’ll have a complete project you could be proud of: you created something new, showed your will and creativity. Plan “a” turned into plan “b” without any catastrophic consequences, there were only advantages.

Troubles appear when plan “b” contradicts plan “a”. In this case, if you refused the dream of your life standing halfway, and keep to plan “b”, you have already lost much time and got lots of negative emotions, lost your self-confidence and maybe got into a deep depression.

Flexibility – this is what matters in this case. As soon as you understand your project does not work, your flexibility allows changing it so seriously that it can be used in completely another field. If you decided to make a feature film using an amateur camera, and later you understood you can’t make it, change its length to a short film. This is how you’ll finish your project at any case, get satisfied with a process and will have the reason to be proud of yourself. In future, you will be able to take all troubles into account and concentrate on something more serious.

Smooth Move to Plan “A”

If you decided to follow your dream and to create an amazing project, move smoothly. You should not suddenly interrupt your regular life and focus on your dream at once. If you want to quit your job and to go in for something absolutely new, investigate the field which is unknown for you: attend courses or read books about the wanted topic. Practice during your free time after work, try to understand if you will be able to concentrate on your dream for the most part of your future life. Try out a new model of your life before you dive into it totally.

Perhaps, you’ve heard stories about people who changed their lives significantly and reached their unbelievable success. Things are different than they seem here. Those people got prepared for their long jump long before.

Think about it, you can’t know what happened in their minds. They didn’t only carry the idea, they devoted much time to theory and practiced. And after they felt that activity to be exactly what they want to do, they jumped there totally. Maybe, they took a high risk, but their risk was reasoned: they planned the jump and prepared for it.

That is why you should gain at least small achievements in this or that field before risking to implement your plan “A”. If you want to become an artist, draw a lot, publish your works in the Internet and watch other people’s reactions.

Study the field which is new for you, and smoothly move into it once you see any significant results. You can mark a date in your calendar (for instance, six months after today) and decide, that you’ll quit your job and concentrate on your dream when that day comes.

Six months is a good and correct term. Of course, you can’t become a professional after that short time, but you can understand the new field, “swim” in it and realize your abilities. During six months, you can read ten books, go in for online courses, look through forums, practice and get at least minimal results.

You should not forget about the possibility to reach success in several fields. You can learn to draw, and study programming or web-design simultaneously. You can choose connected fields or concentrate on two distanced ones as well.

Flexibility

As it was already mentioned, any long-term plan should have its flexibility. Maybe, if later you’ll understand your plan “a” simply won’t work and plan “b” is doubtful, you’ll be able to rework your main goal and make time spent on it not wasted in vain.

But you need to be honest to yourself: you refuse your plan “A” because you realized it won’t work, or you just look for procrastination possibilities. If procrastination is the matter, motivation and changing your viewpoint onto things you do could be helpful. Charging yourself with energy during hard work is very important, great people knew how to find their motivation. Of course, there were people who followed their dream in order to avoid dying of hunger, but there are those who have their life comfortable enough and they still want to reach something bigger.

If you clearly realized your plan “a” does not work and plan “b” is a smooth move for your main one, change your course bravely. Flexibility is good for any part of your life: business, creativity, communication with others. So, there is nothing scary about changing your plans and concentrating on something different.

But it is to be reminded once more: plan “b” needs to be the descendant of plan “a” and its ideas. Though, it works only if you feel sorry about lost time. If you don’t, refuse your former main goal and set up another one. The way to success can look like that as well.